Serra (Race)
Created shortly after its own genesis, the serra are the primary residents of the central regions of the Tree of One World. While they lack the racial unity exhibited by many species of the world, their cultural diversity makes them a force to be reckoned with nonetheless. Physiology From a purely physical standpoint, serra are rather mundane. They share many traits with humans, and resemble them greatly in form. The most noteworthy difference is the pair of wings on their back - while children cannot so much as glide with them, the wings of an adult serra are fully functional and allow for periods of flight. Like any muscle, wings must be trained - but even the most athletic serra can have difficulties staying aloft for prolonged periods of time. An average unencumbered serra can remain airborn for roughly three to five minutes without resting their wings, and athletes have been known to push fifteen. Serra who are heavily encumbered or very out of shape may be unable to fly at all. However, the serra lifecycle deviates wildly from the mammalian heritage of humanity, and betrays the supernatural nature of the race. Like a human, a serra female gestates a child over the course of months - to be precise, this figure is generally 77 days from conception to entering labor unless some force interferes. However, rather than a live child, serra give birth to eggs. An egg-bound child is physically developed to the point where it could be born naturally, but at this point lacks a soul. Cracking open a serra egg will yield nothing but an infant's corpse. An egg can go indefinitely in this state without developing or hatching. To be properly born, an egg must receive a spirit from living serra. This is facilitated through a simple ritual that is intuitively understood by all members of the race. Two or more individuals simply link hands, and channel a fragment of each of their individual souls into the egg, where they will meld together and regenerate into a healthy soul independant of its progenitors. A few hours later, it will hatch into a newborn serra. These soul donors need not be the biological parents of the egg. In fact, dontating soulstuff to one's own biological child is considered to be petty and narcissistic in the extreme, and is one of the few universal taboos of the free-spirited society. Since 'spirit parents' are considered to be the true family of a newborn serra, and are almost always the ones to raise them, it is not uncommon for a serra to go their entire life without knowing (or caring about) the identity of blood relations. Since most serra happily exceed the minimum of two members in a genesis circle, it is likewise commonplace for a serra to have half a dozen 'parents', or even more. It is generally accepted that a child gets their appearance and biology from their blood parents, and their personality and aptitudes from their spiritual ones. While this certainly seems to be true, it is hard to say whether it is a result of some spiritual guidance or simply the fact that it is the spiritual donors who usually raise the child in question. Serra children mature somewhat differently than humans - they reach physical maturity at roughly fifteen years of age, but the rate at which they reach mental maturity varies wildly - to the point where particularly aimless serra may go decades on end without ever being recognized as an adult. Psychology Despite their wild cultural diversity, there are a number of traits which are innate to the race of serra itself. They tend to be quite driven, and often throw themselves whole-heartedly into almost any endeavor. This should not be confused with lack of subtlety or workaholism - while individuals may have those traits, the race as a whole is particularly inclined towards neither. Serra simply tend to put their full effort towards any given task, no matter what that may be - indeed, the love of their society for ever-improving forms of entertainment largely owes itself to a need for those with spare time to 'relax harder'. For most, this drive manifests itself as what the serra refer to as a Calling - a single ambition, usually open-ended, by which the rest of one's life is defined. The degree to which a Calling dominates a life varies, ranging from a simple strong interest to an all-consuming obsession. Finding a Calling is an important rite of passage for young serra, and children are encouraged to experiment with different fields to discover where it may lie for them. In fact, such is the importance of this event that serra culture only begins counting one's age from the date one declares their Calling (or in rare cases, declares a desire to pursue life freely without being bound to one). Family is a mutable and ever-shifting thing, which expresses itself differently in different cultures of the serra. Not only are most children adopted from their biological parents, the parental structure itself is quite variable. The majority of serra are bisexual, and while most choose a single mate for life it is not uncommon for a nebulous network of close friends and lovers to knit together into a single family unit. These satellite family members play an important role in child-rearing, exposing young serra to a hodge-podge of viewpoints and interests early on in their lives. While a sizeable number still choose to remain 'free-blooded', most modern serra families are registered as members of one of the seven Great Houses of the Ministry of One. This provides them not only with a chance to mingle with those of a similar Calling, but to give and recieve support in times of need.